New twist in the Pierre Palmade affair. As revealed this Thursday The Parisian, an expert report rendered to the courts on August 8 allows us to affirm that the accident passenger’s baby died before birth. On February 10, 2023, his mother was wearing it when she was hit by car by Pierre Palmade in Seine-et-Marne, at the wheel of a vehicle traveling in the opposite direction and under the influence of drugs.
“This child is viable, but is not alive at birth (…) The few heartbeats observed around sixteen minutes after birth are insufficient to ensure effective circulatory function and can in no way be considered as signs of extra-uterine life”, according to the conclusions of the report consulted by AFP and included in the investigation file.
A second opinion
The decision rendered by the panel of experts could change the criminal classification of the charges, as recalled The Parisian. If the baby is born alive during childbirth, then he has legal personality which justifies the charge of “involuntary manslaughter”. Otherwise, if the baby died before emergency delivery, then it is considered a fetus without legal personality. In view of the conclusions, justice could decide to remove the charge of “involuntary manslaughter” for which Pierre Palmade was indicted.
If the investigating judge reclassifies the facts from “involuntary homicide” to “unintentional injuries”, the prison sentence incurred by the comedian will be lower, going from ten years to five or seven years. But justice can also request a second opinion. As for the office of Me Mourad Battikh, the family’s lawyer, he told AFP this Thursday that he was not yet in possession of this report but indicated that he would request a second opinion.
Another expertise had been ordered, concerning the conduct of the fifty-year-old. The accident expert appointed by the investigating judge considered that the accident was due to a “driving error” on the part of Pierre Palmade; the vehicle he was driving did not have a technical anomaly, as stated. noted The Parisian.